Pushing off the shore… moving into the vast expanse of my mind, heart, Life. I tingle. I want to be extraordinary. And in an instant, this desire turns to pressure and collapses in on itself. Instead I’ll just be me. Honest. Curious. Optimistic. Ever enchanted by the weird, wild ordinariness of being a human being in a world of endlessly creative, disguised divinity.

That’s the macro. The climate of my inner life on this deep, dark, quiet morning. I just stopped to pick a booger. It was sticky and I rolled it into a little ball and flicked it across my living room. It took a few tries to launch it. I’m embarrassed to admit that. But the naked truth is that I am a booger picker, and you might as well know. That’s the micro.

My Ma has cancer. That’s the burning bush I beat around in my last blog. Still waiting for the said bush to speak Gospel to me. But pretty sure it will. In the mean time, I’ve had two and a half weeks to digest this information. And trust me, I’ve been all over the map. I think my favorite emotion has been self-pity. Yes, I’m embarrassed to admit that too… since SHE is the one suffering. But that’s the bizarre thing about “otherness”… someone right beside you can be undone in pain, and you really have no idea… allured instead by the glow of my own mediocre struggle. Frown.

My Ma says she’s not “in pain”, per se… just exquisitely uncomfortable. Mostly exhausted, and worst of all ITCHY. Desperate to climb out of her skin. I witness her experience from the outside, and it’s like watching her through a thick pane of glass. My dad used to work at the MGM casino in Reno. They kept a doped-up male lion on the family entertainment floor, and you could pay to get your photo taken with this poor, sleepy beast. At five years old, I found this thrilling and we did. The “secret” was a thick pane of glass between us and the Mighty One, which wasn’t perceptible in the photograph. We had to wait a few excruciating DAYS for the photo to be processed… which pressed me into the grill of searing anticipation. I died a few times waiting. And then, gotta love ole Bart Horwitz (my dad)… He was supposed to go downstairs on a break and collect the picture… but he never did. Over time, my desire for the fruit of this frivolous, exploitive adventure shriveled and returned to sacred nothing. I learned early not to “hold my breath” when it came to my dad’s flimsy word.

Hence the frivolous origin of my metaphor of thick glass between “one” and untouchable dimensions of “otherness”. I find it tragic. Because I’ve been on both sides of the glass: the one being ripped apart by loneliness, despair, some unbearable shade of pain…. Hoping to find relief in being witnessed… to no avail… And the one blinking, helpless as She Who Gave Me Life, tears miserably at her own flesh. Oh the kaleidoscopic Mysteries of Existence….

You might not give a hoot about astrology… but I do. And since this IS Athena Graceland, after all, I’ll report that Saturn’s round, dimpled ass is sitting on my gently beaming moon right now, which creates a mood of solitary struggle. The sort of suffocating, internal atmosphere that grinds one down to beautiful, shimmering dust. In the name of Ultimate Revelation. It’s *not* glamorous. But totally necessary. And if you don’t want to speak in cosmically persuaded tongue, that’s cool. Let’s just say that as far as seasons of Life go, it’s a cold, dark winter over here.

But the beauty of living out such a grueling season, is that there are contrast-carving days such as yesterday, which bloom as bright, delicious hints of spring. By some unsayable Grace, the leaden weight in my heart lifts… I unhinge from the need for my Life to be anything other than it IS. This is fresh pressed ecstasy. I was at peace with my Ma’s fate, whatever it may be. Peel back the layer of clutching at permanence, and being so close to the possibility of death is exciting. It clarifies and vivifies Life. It seduces forth more textures of whispering Divinity, laced in Everything. I can feel the holy, smiling warmth of “The Other Side”, as my Ma likes to refer to that easier dimension of Heaven, where Light is not tethered to such laughable density.

Gosh, I sure can get lost in the endless dimensions of my mind! I was telling you about the ease of yesterday. I did an hour of paid cleaning at my Ma’s group house while Serena napped in the car. I felt free. Life was reduced to the simplicity of scrubbing a filmy shower with the green, abrasive side of a sponge and homemade vinegar-water with tea tree and lavender oils. My large hands squeezed into small, orange rubber gloves. When I finished, I laid on my back on the gravely driveway as Serena continued to snooze, texting with Ed… deciding on which day he would visit. We agreed on Moonday. The day after Christmas. I felt excitement swell inside. Danger. Like looking into the eyes of a tiger, this fragile feeling could so easily snap in the jaws of devastating disappointment. But like the archetypal Fool, I softened, letting it all be, as I danced after the rose at the cliff’s edge. I love Ed and I want to spend time with him. I relinquished the urge to be in control of our relationship and “the future”. (Which I spend a lot of time and energy attempting to manipulate in hopes of “getting comfortable” and feeling “okay”.)

Then a sliver honda crunched the gravel driveway and spit my Ma out, fresh from another doctor appointment, and less nine vials of blood. She was high on pumpkin spice latte, which made her behave like her former self! Full of energy and good humor. (These days, she mostly exists in a dull state of exhaustion, molded to the shape of her beige recliner, dispensing frequent apologies for her wilted state.) I lapped up every precious second we were blessed to share.

Lots of other stuff happened too. (Didn’t the literary precision of that last sentence bring you to your beautiful knees?!?!) All profoundly ordinary, yet glistening with a sassy hint of revealed divinity. This is what happens after death. Suddenly there is new space for Truth to beam through the veil. No doubt this is what Leonard Cohen meant when he sang, “There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the Light gets in.” Death upon sweet death cracks apart the ego’s defenses to the blazing Reality of Light. Slowly, over time, in my case…and perhaps sometimes all at once. (Yikes!)

I don’t want to deluge you in the mundane details of my awesome existence, but I can’t skip the part where Serena and I drove to the cow dairy to procure a half gallon of raw milk for my Ma… we left the car running, intending to be quick. Three calves rested in a bed of hay, adjacent to the milk room. The smallest one, a baby bull, stood up, spindly hind legs first, and came to the fence to say hi. He let me scratch his neck! Then a bigger girl came over and licked my hand with her thick, coarse tongue. My heart turned melty as they gazed at us with their radiant, wide, brown moon eyes. I thought I’d never wash my barnyard stained hands.

I don’t know if I’ll feel as right and free today. Serena woke too many times last night. Then I awoke at almost four am from a dream of orcas. It was nighttime. I rode a ferry and they danced elegantly in the dark water alongside the boat. I called out to them, “I LOVE YOU!!!!” When our boat docked, they approached and let me pet them. I was cautious at first, in their mighty presence. Then I relaxed into trust. This dream exploded my crown open and flooded me with infinity and stars and a feeling of pulsing awe.

I am ready for whatever shades of Grace today bestows.

Advertisements

Email Subscription

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.